US State Department deceived Congress on Gaza – ex-official

The US Department of State lied to Congress when it said Israel was not restricting the flow of aid into Gaza, a former official has claimed after resigning in protest.

Stacy Gilbert served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration for 20 years. She left her job as a senior adviser on Tuesday, citing objections in relation to a 46-page memo titled NSM-20, which was provided to US lawmakers on May 10, she told Reuters and The Guardian.

In the memo, the State Department said Israel had not breached a US law that prohibits the provision of arms to nations that restrict American humanitarian aid.

Gilbert was one of the experts consulted for the report and says the conclusion did not correspond to reality.

“It is absolutely the opinion of the humanitarian subject matter experts in the State Department, and not just in my bureau – people who look at this from the intelligence community and from other bureaus,” she said of her position. She described NSM-20 “patently false” in comments to the British newspaper.

The draft report was taken out of expert hands and edited at a higher level, she explained. After reading what Congress was ultimately told, she informed her colleagues that she would be resigning. Her departure was confirmed to the Washington Post by inside sources. On Thursday, the department stood over NSM-20, but declined to comment on Gilbert’s role.

Alexander Smith, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), also reportedly left his job over his dissent on Gaza. He said his presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians had been canceled by the agency leadership last week.

“I cannot do my job in an environment in which specific people cannot be acknowledged as fully human,” he told the same outlet. Smith and Gilbert are among nine US officials known to have resigned in protest at Washington’s policy since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the deadly raid by the Palestinian militant group Hamas last October.

Josh Paul, who was among the first to resign just weeks into the conflict, told the Washington Post that at least two dozen more US officials had also quietly resigned since October.

US President Joe Biden has said there are no “red lines” for Washington’s support of Israel, even as aid organizations warned that people trapped in the enclave are facing starvation, lack of medical treatment, and other life-threatening conditions.

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